In an industry that seems to move at the speed of light, Marina Arnaout is doing a pretty good job keeping pace.
As regional head of digital for software giant SAS, Arnaout currently leads a team of five working within Canada and emerging markets in Latin America. At just 29, she is the youngest person within SAS – which has operations in more than 70 countries – to hold the role.
She and peers from around the world developed and executed the company’s first global advertising plan earlier this year—a multi-million-dollar initiative spanning 70 countries with vendors including Google, The Economist, LinkedIn and Harvard Business Review.
Elsewhere, she and her team have implemented two programs—Social Selling and LinkedIn Lead Accelerator—that have been adopted in other markets. Social Selling, which involved training SAS sales reps how to use social media to find prospects and modernize sales, has been implemented globally (“a great accomplishment for me,” says Arnaout).
“It’s so easy to become complacent and say ‘This is how things have always been done,’ but I really disagree with that approach,” she says. “The field we work in is consistently evolving, so you can no longer just get by doing things the way they’ve always been done.”
Andrew Dixon, vice-president of marketing with SAS Canada, says that Arnaout is doing a “phenomenal job” as a first-time manager, calling her a “real natural” in the role. “Her work ethic is top-notch and she’s an absolute sponge,” says Dixon. “She’s constantly looking for new things to try.”
As an example of Arnaout’s attention to detail, Dixon says she signs up to receive a notification email every time somebody registers on the SAS website. “She does this not because she enjoys the massive onslaught of emails, but because she want to verify that the system is catching every single one of those registrations and nothing slips through.”
Dixon says there’s no ceiling on what Arnaout will be able to achieve professionally. “She’s certainly got the drive, the capability and the determination,” he says. “I think she’s going to look for more and more challenges.”
Arnaout says it was apparent early on that digital would play a role in her professional life. She was creating her own GeoCities websites and Yahoo clubs while still in elementary school, and was profiled on MuchMusic at the age of 12 for one of the websites she created.
“I’ve always been drawn to new and innovative fields and creating the brand new, so digital was a really great fit,” she says. “I love the challenge of working in an area that’s constantly evolving and fast-paced…and digital is completely revamping the business world as well as the personal world.”
Her career has also included a role as marketing and sales specialist with the Microsoft partner Atum Corporation – where she increased website traffic by 40% and annual sales by 15% – followed by a three-year stint as social media manager with Steam Whistle Brewing.
Her work in managing the brewery’s online presence led to her selection as one of Canada’s 100 digital leaders by the digital marketing conference Dx3.
Arnaout is singularly focused on finding solutions. That’s what led her to launch the luxury life website AffluenceAvenue.com in 2013, when a Google search for “Toronto luxury lifestyle guide” produced no results. (Today AffluenceAvenue.com is the first result when that search term is entered.)
“I thought to myself ‘Toronto is such a world-class city, I don’t know why this doesn’t exist yet.’ Instead of just waiting for it to happen, I thought that I would just do it myself.”
Three years later, AffluenceAvenue.com has emerged as a hugely successful side project, attracting 50,000 unique visitors a month with Arnaout regularly being approached to work with brands such as Acura, American Express and W Hotels.
Affluence Avenue was nominated as Best Blog for the 2015 Notable Awards, which recognize young professionals across the country, while Arnaout was also interviewed for the Whatever it Takes network’s web series Women in Power.
Arnaout also serves as a sub-committee leader for Breakfast of Champions as well as the leadership council of the Clinton Foundation 20/30, which works to empower young professionals in their 20s and 30s who will become the future leaders by the year 2030. She played a key role in bringing the CFevent to Toronto – securing Klick Health as a sponsor, identifying the event theme, securing a venue and recruiting attendees.
While Marketing’s 30 Under 30 project is an annual reminder of just how many capable young professionals are employed in Canada’s marketing-communications sector, one of Arnaout’s personal mottos is to compare yourself only with your previous self. “As long as you’re doing better than you were yesterday, to me that’s success,” she says.
There are insights and anecdotes aplenty in our 30 Under 30 editorial package. To get the scoop on our finalists visit 30U30.ca and read full profiles of Canada’s next set of marketing leaders.
